Stephen Cole, Musical Theatre Writer-Session-3-Episode #403

Stephen Cole is returning to StoryBeat for the third time. He’s an award-winning musical theatre writer whose musicals have spanned the globe.Stephen’s first production was Dodsworth starring Hal Linden. His Off-Broadway musicals include After the Fair, The Road to Qatar and Inventing Mary Martin. He won the prestigious Kleban Award for The Night of the Hunter. And Saturday Night at Grossinger’s had successful runs in Dallas, LA, Florida, and Sonoma.Broadway legend Chita Rivera toured in Casper, which was reborn as Casper-The Friendly Musical. Merman's Apprentice, premiered at Birdland in New York and won the San Francisco Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Score. Stephen's latest musical, Goin’ Hollywood, had its world premiere at WaterTower Theatre in Texas.His published books include That Book About That Girl, I Could Have Sung All Night, and MARY & ETHEL…and Mikey Who? which we talked about during Stephen’s last appearance on this show.  His current theatrical memoir, Camelton, also doubles as his one-man show, which played to sold-out crowds in New York.I’ve read Camelton, and can tell you it’s a terrifically entertaining account of Stephen’s extraordinarily challenging time writing a musical celebration for the Emir of Qatar. His reminiscence captures all the crazy sturm und drang of creating a massive musical under commission in a foreign land.